Old Timer’s Corner: He Does What Now?

Musefolk! Midsouth Gaming is proud to be cross posting a select handful of our articles here on Muse. This is a continuation of Midsouth Gaming’s resident Pressganger journey into the Skorne Empire.

Last time I talked about what I was planning to do with Skorne. I made a couple mistakes in my Rasheth list.[1] Pretty embarrassing, but when you don’t pay attention things like that will creep out and bite you. Since then, I have gotten a few games under my belt. The good news is I have been loving my Skorne[2] and I am batting a whopping .500 with them.[3] The bad news is that with the Umbra league rules of bonus points for playing a different caster, I have yet to play the same caster twice.[4] I have played: PETA,[5] pMakeda, eMakeda, Mordikaar, eHexeris, and pMorghoul. I have enjoyed all of these casters except pMorghoul.

My lists have been pretty bad, so I will not repeat what they were here. Needless to say, in the games I lost, I threw the list together with War Room just minutes before the game. This is what I call the “trial and error” method to list building. It goes hand in hand with the “I like the look of this model” method. It helps that most of the time I have little to no idea what I am doing with these guys when I am playing. It shows. I am use to all the huge bases not a combined arms approach. I use to do the combined arms approach with Menoth, but in Khador it was be on a large/huge base or go home!

My fellow compatriots here have been writing about their experimental lists and how to win, especially in a tournament setting. I have yet to officially play in a Warmachine/Hordes tournament, though I am hoping this year that changes. I could write about how to run a tournament, but I am sure only about 3 potential readers would be interested in that. I might try to write about how to deal with bad dice rolls,[6] but that would only depress me. Instead, I shall write about how to transition from not only one faction to another, but also to another system. Or more properly, how I totally suck at playing Skorne.[7]

Thanks, but I just said that, Bill Murray

To give some background, I first played Warmachine in 2007. I know focus, allocation and all things warjack related. I have 10 games of Hordes under my belt, including the 6 Skorne.[8] I might have more experience with Focus than Fury. Now, without further ado, here is how I suck at Hordes!

Math is not hard. For some reason, trying to make sure you have enough fury without having your beasts frenzy is. It is easy to say my warlock has 7 fury, so plan on putting 7 fury out there for next turn. Of course, the beast needs to stay within the control range to get the fury. A Train Wreckin’ Molik Karn or Bronzeback can easily get out of that range. I am sure that has never happened to anyone before, especially with pMorghouls huge Fury stat.[9] Then there is just activating your warlock, only casting one spell. Then forgetting to have the warbeasts not rile. Or activate the beast handlers in the wrong order. Do not get me started on when I finally roll box cars…

Not needing to allocate is great! Most people’s battle plans might not survive contact with the enemy, mine do not survive contact with my dice. Being able to hedge my bets is a great part of Hordes, however it does bring up something else to be concerned with: forcing the warbeasts. Remembering the warbeasts have to end in the control range to get the cool attacks and boosts and not starting in the control range. Some people have troubles with remembering allocations, I forget about the control range. Hey Kraye, let me introduce you to my friend Molik Karn…that’s it, just introducing you to him, he isn’t swinging or anything. The Willbreaker helps there, but you need to not deploy him directly behind the Mammoth.

I just wanted to see how you are, not like kill you or anything.

Speaking of the Mammoth, he does more than just shoot! Wait, there are other abilities that warbeasts have like that animus thingy. ‘Jacks don’t have that, so what the frack is that all about. I “know” that warbeasts have animi and how it interacts with the warlock. I do not, however, have the know ho on how the animi interact with the warlock. It is just something that, I, as a Warmachine player, do not think about at all when playing or even constructing a list. I do remember to have the warbeast cast it, with the exception of the Mammoth.[10] I do it on many an occasion – Raider casts far strike on Mammoth, Bronzeback casts Train Wreck on itself or Karn…so on and so forth. There are a couple of major differences between Hordes and Warmachine and this is one. It is also something I have noticed that is forgotten in the discussion betwixt the two. Everyone mentions the fury and focus mechanics, but I have yet to hear anyone bring this up.[11] So please, if you are like me and are moving from Warmachine to Hordes, do NOT forget this. It might be an important thing, but what do I know?

When switching faction, for the love of all that is holy, read the cards more than once. I know everybody does this, they read the card, go “cool,” then move on and forget about it. I was playing eHexeris against a fellow MSG’r and was “rediscovering” what eHexeris did and how much I love him.[12] The problem was, my turns were taking forever! When your opponent is use to 10 minute turns or less and you are taking 20+ minutes, well patience can began to lapse on that. More importantly, if you have to take that much time in a competitive setting, you are going to run out of time fairly quickly. An obviosity, I know, but still, some things need to be said. So please, for the sake of everyone involved, don’t be like me and instead know what your dudes can do.

When jumping factions, be prepared to lose and to lose big. I have seen it happen to many times. Player A keeps getting beaten by X army, since they are obviously overpowered. Player A moves to X faction and then expecting to use the “I Win!” button, loses…still. This, I guess, is more a word of warning. For those of you going to the new flavor of the month faction,[13] do not expect to win right away, even if the “net deckers” say you auto-win with a certain list. Don’t be afraid to move to another faction, but don’t think because you are an awesome Mercnar[14] player, that you are going to totally dominate with Skorne right out of the box. Especially if you roll like me.

The Fonz, getting ready to jump factions.

I will end this here, I do not want to inundate you with everything about Hordes I suck at. I will say this, I have really enjoyed playing Skorne[15]and cannot wait until the rest of my orders come in!

What problems have you had when you switched casters/factions/game systems? Don’t be shy, it’s the internet so it is all anonymous.[16]